Question#1: Competitors of Master Card: MasterCard competitors are primarily in the Transaction, Credit & Collections industry.

MasterCard also competes in the Lending sector. MasterCard competitors include:

American Express Discover Visa Inc

History: MasterCard, originally known as Master Charge, was created by several California banks as a competitor to the BankAmericard issued by Bank of America, which later became the Visa credit card issued by Visa Inc. The original banks behind MasterCard were United California Bank Crocker National Bank, and the Bank of California. Accomplishments through the time are as follow: Over the past four decades, MasterCard has been a leader in the payment services industry with many security innovations and initiatives.

1969 Introduced a centralized fraud reporting system to track and analyze fraud 1974 Standardized the magnetic stripe for all cards 1983 Pioneered the three-dimensional hologram 1988 Developed CVC 2 (Card Validation Code 2) and the tamper-evident signature panel 1990 Introduced the Customer Protection Program, combining fraud monitoring and analysis 1995 Introduced Chip technology 2001 Launched MasterCard Site Data Protection 2002 Launched MasterCard SecureCode 2003 Introduced the Debit MasterCard Hologram 2004 Partnered with NameProtect to close down fraudulent Internet sites 2005 Mandated Triple DES encryption on all ATM networks; integrated mobile messaging service into fraud-detection product Aristion

Question#3:

As per my understanding the strategic importance is lot more than the operational planning because to get started the operations we first need to draw the strategy, how and when the things are needed and how we are going to provide them and obviously the long term planning is more sufficient because in long term planning we cover short term goals as well.